Tech Council Meeting on 10/6/11

• Welcome and Burning Issues/Questions
  • Discovery Education Science
    • Steve: Discovery Ed Science -- What is happening to continue our DE Science for Middle Schools?
    • Jane: RESC Tech will be advocating at the SDE.
  • Guaranteed Technology Experiences
    • Lynn: What are other districts doing?
    • Marji: You need to have administrative support. Marji has them posted on a Google site. She has a spreadsheet with the curriculum standards aligned to the national ones. Teachers are given printed sheets to fill out in the lab and classrooms. Marij's spreadsheet: 10-11CurriculumCheckSheet.xls
    • Rosetta: Starting the process as a district in Plainfield.
  • Mike: Over 800 students with 1-1 laptops! How to close the gap with adults?
    • Freshman are using iCal and some students are piloting Growly Notes at http://growlybird.com/GrowlyBird/Notes.html
    • Mike's been using the Intel Education - Teacher Engage Community with teachers.
      http://engage.intel.com/community/teachersengage/
    • Lynn and Rosetta offer PD but not many show up. Unfortunately Rosetta finds the ones who complain never attend.
    • Marji: Ashford classroom teacher has just gotten her degree in Tech Ed and prefer going to her, perhaps because she is a colleague.
    • Bob: Finding that the new teachers are pushing him to get new technologies for the classroom.
  • Mike: What are schools doing with SMART Phones? It will cut the cost for school tech purchases.
  • Rosetta: Does anyone have a template for fiber RFP? Jane suggests looking at DOIT.
  • News From Discovery Education's LC
    • Check out CT's Discovery Education Network blog at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/category/connecticut/
    • Day of Discovery FREE! Saturday, October 22 in Meridan.
  • FETC Virtual Conference, October 27 online! FREE! Register at
    http://fetc.org/Events/Virtual-Conference/Home.aspx
  • Glen: Other interactive board brands besides SMART, mimio, and Promethean?
    • Rosetta: Like the Promethean because they can be dinged and still work and 2) 2 students can work at once. She also is purchasing KOH brackets allows you to slide interactive whiteboard away from their whiteboard/chalkboard. Jim: http://www.kohdesign.com/SmartBoardRailBracket.html
    • Rich: Don't mix and match - Teachers get familiar with one brand/style and switching can be confusing.
      • Doceri - "Through the Doceri Remote iPad app and Doceri Desktop software, you can control a computer (Mac or Windows), easily launch any document or application, and annotate over them at any time." Check it out at http://doceri.com/
      • Rich encourages the rail system because teachers love their whiteboards. Jim W. agrees. $250 for KOH rail system.
  • Glen: Open Office anyone? Mike: Using Open Office at Killingly High School successfully. Teachers are encouraged to use Google docs.
• Tech Plan and other State and Federal Updates - NOTE: This is the year to revise your district's Tech Plan. The Tech Plan template has been revised and is in the Forms Review process at CSDE. To view a DRAFT of the template, go to: http://eastconntechcouncil.wikispaces.com/TechPlan
  • Hopefully the template will pass the forms review and be ready at the end of the month.
  • Josiah Hills has a new job. At first he was a victim of the state layoffs, but he found a new job a CREC before he was reinstated. This means there is no Tech Consultant at the State Department of Education.
  • The RESC Tech Alliance is a strong voice with representation from all the RESCs.
  • Jane reviewed some of the key points and changes in the proposed template. At this point, the template has not been approved. It's expected that the plan will be sent to the RESCs for review in March so they get feedback and will be ready in June.
• No competitive EETT grants this year.
• EASTCONN has enough RFS days to give a day per district plus a few regional workshops.
  • District superintendents' should be receiving a letter
  • 2 day TIPP21 TOT requested by the group
• 3rd Annual RESC Alliance Conference: Teaching and Learning on the Digital Edge
  • Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at the Water's Edge in Westbrook, CT
  • Register for just $49!
  • Register at http://www.rescalliance.org/digitaledge/
  • Encouraging Administrators and Teachers to attend.
• Moment of Silence for Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
• How did you spend your summer vacation?
  • What did you learn at ISTE?
  • What blogs did you read?
  • What new tech tools did you play with?
  • Steve: Google is pushing their Chrome books. He had a great time at the Google conference in NYC. To manage the Chrome books, you need to have a domain and purchase through Google. Interesting promising technology, runs for 8 hours plus, and Google plans for $440 per year or $720 for 3 years. Steve bought his through Amazon to try out and has a practice domain.
• Set agendas for future meetings
  • Brainstorming of Hot Topics/Areas of Focus for 2011-12:
    • September/October: How did you spend your summer vacation?
      • What did you learn at ISTE?
      • What blogs did you read?
      • What new tech tools did you play with?
    • November/December: Tech Plan
      • Revising the plan; it's due by 6/30/12!
    • May: What's new and cool?
      • New Technologies
      • Web 2.0 Tools
    • January: IOS/Handheld Devices
      • How are you using handheld devices in education?
      • Universal wireless
    • February: Curriculum/Standards
      • How do we embed technology tools across the curriculum?
      • Guaranteed Tech Experiences
• Tour of the new EASTCONN Conference Center